A landscape that hasn't changed in a while

Up Close and Personal

Although we didn't see many people we did see some occupants of the surrounding ranch, some of whom seemed indignant at our intrusion and were reluctant to give up their positions in the middle of the road.(I'm pretty sure he's giving us a wicked crusty)

The Spiral Jetty

The Spiral Jetty was built in 1970 during a drought, so it is mostly under water right now. It was still cool to see, the next drought year we'll have to go out again so we can go and walk on it.

Weird Things on the Jetty

...the jetty that is NOT the Spiral Jetty, that is

1. Tar (not that that is that odd)
2. Feathers and Bones (lots and lots of bones)
3. Bubbles

The Jetty that is NOT the Spiral Jetty

We passed a family on mountain bikes on the drive out, but other than that we didn't see a soul for hours and it was utterly silent except for the sounds of slight breezes or water lapping occasionally. Looking at the lake and the mist shrouding the base of the mountains in the distance made me feel like this should be the scenery in a fantasy novel. We're at the end of the jetty from the first picture. The lake behind us didn't show up, so it looks like we're at the end of the world.
This jetty is close by the spiral jetty and was used in oil explorations from the 1920's - 1980's.

Our Grand Fall Break Adventure

Promontory Point
As anyone with good taste knows the best adventures start with Coke, Peanut butter M&Ms, and Munchie Mix, AND picnic sandwiches.
Adventure's 2nd stop was Promontory Point, cuz we were there. (Stop one may or may not be addressed in a later post.)
Real steam-engines that that work! They also came with chatty conductors that gave us cool historical facts. (We lucked out this is the last day of the year the steam engines come out of their little house until May.)
Uh...can I say I'm glad I'm not in charge of moving this train?

Power of the Eyebrow

Charles Le Brun was a painter for Louis XIV in the 17th century. He was in charge of the French Royal Academy of art and he dictated the style and taste of art in ways that impacted the next century or so of art. Anywho, he considered showing expressions very important and he created a handbook for artists with different facial expressions that was widely published.

This is an excerpt from an article we read for my art history classes by Linda Walsh called "Charles Le Brun 'art dictator of France'".

"Le Brun asserted (with a touching confidence) that the eyebrow is the most expressive part of the face because it best shows the 'nature of the agitation' of the soul. Plate 72 shows how the eyebrows are linked to the pineal gland situated 'in the middle of the brain' - the brain being the part of the body 'where the soul exercises its functions most immediately'. Although Le Brun conceded that eyes, mouths and noses can betray or express emotion...he felt that the eyebrow was capable of the greatest and most subtle range of positions, and thus able to express passions of all kinds."

Lol! So utterly fabulous. Gotta heart it. See the diagram for anger below, with the man himself below that. (It appears that his eyebrows, at least would be capable of considerable gyrations.) The picture at the beginning of the post is really small, but check out those sweet brows.

Catch the Moon